History and Legend - Greece

Last Updated: 7th Jun 2012

The land of the Spartans, Athenians and Alexander the Great; Greece is born of myths and legends, heroes and tragedies.

Greece will be forever connected with Gods and myths of the ancients. From The Titans and Cyclopes to the gods Zeus, Athena, Poseidon and Dionysus and great heroes of the Iliad like Hector, Hercules and Achilles, Ajax and Odysseus, ancient Greek religion is still today inspiring movies like ‘Troy’ and ‘300’. People still visit the country to see the remnants of the great cities, temples, stadiums and monuments built to these gods and deities.

A relatively ‘new’ country in terms of its government (the country was ruled by the Ottoman Turks for almost 500 years up until 1829 then and had a royal family until another revolution and coup eventually established a democracy in 1975). Greece is still politically an emerging country, however reminders of the ancient Greece that sparked democracy are everywhere you look, no matter where you are in the country.

Athens of course is the first Greek city that comes to mind as it is the home of the acropolis and the birthplace of democracy but from Corfu in the north to the Greek islands in the South and Preveza and Thermopylae in the east and west Greece is totally drenched in over 3500 years of history.